A Celestial Savior
by FairiesAndUnicorns
Summary: Lucy is roped into a new mission where, in order to save the human and celestial worlds, she must pretend to be engaged to and living to a gorgeous man. Her heart breaks as her friends wish Lucy and her fiance happiness from the bottom of their hearts. Perhaps the excitement and happiness from Natsu regarding Lucy's wedding hurts the most, though. Can she follow through? NALU
1. I Am NOT an Escort!

AUTHOR NOTES (WILL ONLY APPEAR ON FIRST CHAPTER)

Hello there! To start off, here is a description of this story, so you can decide if this story is your cup of tea or not:

Lucy Heartfilia is called away from a party with her friends by Mavis Vermillion on a secret mission that requires her to pretend to be engaged to and living with a very handsome man—and to convince all of her friends and everyone at Fairy Tail that her relationship and engagement are both real. As tasteless as the job appears at first glance, it is an essential step in what it will take to save both Earthland and the Celestial World from Zeref's latest plot to destroy everything and everyone. It is heartbreaking for Lucy to have to deceive her friends—and also to have Natsu enthusiastically express his excitement and happiness for her upcoming "marriage." Can she follow through on her mission, and do what it takes to save everyone and everything that matters to her?

This story, though plot-heavy, will include some pairings. The most prominent will be Nalu, but I will most likely also add some Gruvia, Gajevy, and Jerza.

I haven't decided yet if I will add lemon later on. I guess I will have to see if people want it or not.

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoy!

This is a Fairy Tail fanfiction, as you can see, and at the time this was written, Chapter 521 of the manga was just published. There are minor spoilers in this chapter, but in future chapters, there will be MAJOR spoilers, so please do not read if you are not caught up with the manga.

I do not own Fairy Tail. All Fairy Tail ideas, including characters, the imaginary world in which Fairy Tail Exists, are all owned by Hiro Mashima and his publishers. This work of fiction is created to be fun, and not to generate any sort of profit.

All events that have taken place in the manga up to chapter 521 are taken into account in the writing of this story. The story takes place after the supposed end of the Alvarez Empire battles. Any events that take place after chapter 521 are completely made-up by me, and do not represent the original manga of Fairy Tail.

Chapter One: I Am NOT an Escort!

Lucy choked on the champagne she had just attempted to daintily sip. For the record, champagne burns when it goes down the wrong pipe, and then up the nose. Good to know. As she hacked and coughed and wheezed, Lucy tried her hardest to listen to the telepathic message she was receiving suddenly and unexpectedly at the very beginning of a party between several of the Fairy Tail teams to to celebrate completing a major job. It was hard to focus while choking and in a room with so many people. This party was probably the largest they had ever had outside of the guild hall.

" **Lucy, are you there? It's Mavis Vermillion. A very important job has come up. I must speak with you immediately. Please remove yourself from the presence of everyone, including fellow Fairy-Tail guild members, and find a location where you are out of earshot from any other people."**

Lucy knew why she wanted her to get away from potential eavesdroppers. She had yet to master answering telepathy without speaking out loud. Anything she said would be heard by others.

For now, though, if she could just manage to stop coughing and hacking, it would be a good start. Stupid champagne. _That's what you get for drinking before even starting cooking dinner, Lucy._

"Lucy, are you okay?" Levy asked, having stood up from her chair and come to Lucy's side to pat her back.

Lucy gracelessly grabbed a napkin to catch the champagne coming out of her nose, sneezing mightily into it.

"Wow, that was feminine," Happy teased.

Ugh, now was not the time for this ridiculousness. First Master, who was now the current master of Fairy Tail after Makarov's death, was waiting for her. She needed to find a way to sneak out and get away from everyone.

"Levy, that's not how you get stuff unstuck from the windpipe. You gotta put some more umph into it," Gajeel declared, smacking Lucy on the back so hard, it knocked half the wind out of her.

She gasped, her nose, throat, and back throbbing.

"What the hell, Gajeel?!" Levy demanded.

"Indeed," interrupted Erza, as imperious as ever, "You must use a more gentle approach when you are dealing with someone as delicate as Lucy." She smacked Lucy on the back again, with less of a burning slap, but twice the force. That knocked the rest of the wind out of her.

Lucy tried to gasp for more air, but couldn't manage it. She toppled out of the chair and onto the floor, feeling like her lungs had completely collapsed.

"Erza, you just hit her twice as hard!" Carla snapped. "Will all you buffoons back off for a moment and let the poor girl recover?"

Thank goodness for Carla.

" **Lucy, did you hear me?"** Mavis asked. **"I haven't received any response yet, and until you start moving, my divining spells won't be able to locate you. I do hope everything is all right. I do request that you get to me as soon as you can. The situation I need your help with is of the utmost urgency."**

Lucy heaved and coughed yet again, before finally managing to take in some air. Now, she was pissed. Her friends were hilarious, boisterous, and quirky, but they could not have picked a worse time to act like such morons. She finally managed to sit up. "Okay, that's enough of that," she gasped. "Just back off, all of you!"

Erza got on her knees and bowed before Lucy. "Please accept my most sincere and humble apologies! Please, hit me!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Just give it a rest already."

Natsu opened the door and came in, carrying a giant bag stuffed with food. "What the hell is going on in here? You okay, Lucy?"

Lucy stood up. "I'm fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get some tea from my house that will help my throat and back feel better. I will be back as soon as I can."

"Oi!" Natsu responded. "Happy and I will come with you!"

Lucy put her hand up, palm facing Natsu, gesturing "stop." "Um, Natsu, this is your house. You and Happy can't both abandon all your guests. I'll be fine. I'll be right back."

"Lucy, do you want me to come with you?" offered Levy.

" **Lucy, I am starting to get concerned. Please contact me as soon as possible," Mavis said.**

"No, I'm fine, thank you!" Lucy replied, and dashed as quickly as she could with lungs only half-full of air to the door, exiting and rocketing out of there too fast for anyone to follow her. She disappeared into the woods, then looked behind her to see if anyone was following her. It appeared that no one was, or if they were, they went the wrong direction. Perfect. But, now what?

" **Lucy, I was able to locate you! You must have been at Natsu's house. I forgot that you all were having a party tonight. It makes sense now why you took some time to get away. Sorry for freaking out."**

"Don't worry about it! I'm ready to talk now."

" **Good. I am going to cast a spell that will light a path from where you are now to our meeting place. It's not too far from you, thankfully. Only you will be able to see it. We will see in a few minutes, hopefully."**

"All right, I'll be there as soon as I can!"

Mavis's spell showed up like a trail of golden fairy dust that wound through the forest right in front of Lucy. No matter how much Mavis had slipped into the role of Fairy Tactician, and no matter how mind-blowingly brilliant she was, she always held onto her love of fairies and her desire to meet them. _Some parts of us just never grow up,_ Lucy thought with a smile.

After twenty or so minutes of trekking through the forest following Mavis's fairy dust trail, Lucy happened upon some old ruins. The path sent her through the entrance and then down some stairs, descending several stories below the ground. The only light she had was from the spell, until she rounded a corner and saw Mavis, Mest, and a stranger sitting around a table, in a small room lit by magical light.

She approached the group. What was going on? Why was Mest here? And why was this stranger here? Typically, when a major job came up, guild wizards were given job request forms and asked to officially accept the jobs before meeting with clients. But this guy had to be a client.

Mavis stood up and smiled at Lucy. "Welcome, Lucy! I'm so glad you could make it on such short notice! Thank you for coming. May I introduce you to our client? Lucy, this is Maverick Kennicot. He requested you specifically for this job. Maverick, as you requested, this is our esteemed Celestial Wizard, Lucy Heartfilia."

Maverick stood up to greet Lucy. Lucy's eyes met his, and she was astonished to see that the man before her was one of the most attractive men she had ever met. Holy pretty boy! Tall, dark, and GORGEOUS. Tan, black hair, tall, lean, and vivid sky-blue eyes. This guy gave Loke a run for his money in terms of striking attractiveness.

Lucy reached her hand out to Maverick. Hello, there. It's nice to meet you."

Maverick's smile was worth a million Jewel, and he reached out to give Lucy a firm, confident handshake. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well. Thank you so much for meeting us here."

"It's my pleasure," said Lucy, while both she and Maverick took seats at the table.

"All right then, let's get down to business," said Mavis. "This is a complicated situation. I don't even know where to start. I imagine I should start by telling you what you will be doing in the beginning."

Lucy nodded. "Okay."

There will be different stages of this job, and they are all very important. For the first steps, we need Maverick to have a front of being engaged to someone. Before we can move to the next step, he needs to have been engaged to and living with someone officially on record for three months. And it has to be believable. So, starting the day after tomorrow, Maverick will be moving into your apartment, and you will be pretending to be an engaged couple."

Lucy felt like she had been smacked by Erza again. "Hold on...this is moving a lot faster than I am comfortable with. Master Mavis, I know you said this is an important job, but I don't have a clue why you would need me to do that. I mean, you want me to let some guy I don't even know move into my apartment, and you want me to pretend to be his fiancee?!"

Mavis giggled. "Oh, this is what I get for cutting corners in terms of explanation. I guess I am just so anxious, I want to get the ball rolling."

"Master," Mest interrupted, "it would be advisable to explain the situation first, before asking a young woman to play a role like that. And a talented wizard at that."

Mavis nodded. "I see. I apologize. Living inside a lacrima for a hundred years didn't help me much in the way of social common sense. Please forgive me."

Lucy sighed. "It's fine, Master. Just tell me what is going on and why I have to do this. I am not gonna lie, I am feeling really insulted right now. I am a wizard, not an escort."

"Miss," Maverick interrupted. "Please, accept my most sincere apologies. I am not interested in your services as an escort, even as a facade. It is helpful that you are so cute and beautiful so that we can make our engagement believable to law enforcement, but I require your assistance as a wizard most of all. I am in need of the services of a Celestial. You are the best Celestial Wizard in this world."

"Okay, just tell her everything, since you are better at this than I am" said Mavis.

"Certainly," replied Maverick.

"Okay, so there are no hidden funny ideas behind this job, right?" Lucy inquired.

Maverick laughed. "Absolutely not. You have nothing to worry about. I am gay."

Ah. Well, that was helpful. Attractive as this guy was, Lucy wasn't personally attracted to him in the slightest. Not to mention, dating someone for compensation was not something she could ever bring herself to do, no matter the cause. "Well, that's good. So why do you need me to pretend to be your fiance? You gotta admit, that's a pretty strange request."

"Indeed, it is. Let me explain. My partner, Steele, and I were living as a family with his younger siblings for the last several years. He went on some kind of mission with the Royal Army, and things didn't go well. No one made it home. Many bodies were found, and all missing bodies were presumed dead. Steele's body was never found. I can't explain why or how I know, but Steele isn't dead. He needs help. I am not going to be able to find him without his siblings, though. I know of a spell to find him, but that spell requires the blood of his relatives. And to make things worse, the Child Order and Protection Agency of Fiore has taken his siblings into custody. And they will not allow me to take them home. My partnership with Steele is not legally recognized by the government, so I have no custodial rights to those kids, even though I love them with all my heart, and my world has fallen apart from having to be separated from them. They have been sent to undisclosed locations to provide physical and magical labor until they can be adopted formally." His eyes grew dark. "If I could, I would tear apart every person involved in these changes. I can't even imagine what they are going through. Those kids...I love them so much. We are a family. We need to be back together." Maverick's eyes filled with tears. "And the only way I will be allowed to adopt them will be if I can prove that I am in long-term relationship with a woman, either married to engaged to be married."

Lucy felt herself tearing up. What a horrible situation. "How could they do that to you? Have you talked to the king? I can't imagine he would stand for this!"

Maverick shook his head. "He can't help me. I don't know what has happened, but he is under some kind of spell that has interfered with his ability to think rationally about the situation and intervene. Something very sinister is going on. I fear that those children are in very real danger."

"I tried to detect and possibly remove any memory enchantments from The King," said Mest. "I had no ability to do so. Whoever enchanted his mind is very powerful, and the source and nature of their power and enchantments elude me. I will continue working on that, but we need to attack this threat on many, many angles."

"For now," continued Mavis, "legal entities that are not involved in the sinister plot are not going to side with us, because everything is in order on paper. The law says that Maverick has no custodial rights, even though he and Steele have been together, living together as a family, for five years. In addition, the law states that in order to adopt or foster children, there must be a household with a man and a woman in a relatively stable relationship. The requirement is that they must be married or engaged, for a minimum of three months, and also living together for a minimum of three months. After all of that has cleared, the close friends, family members, and people who frequently encounter the couple wishing to adopt, will all be questioned extensively by the agency to prevent fraud. That means that all of your and Maverick's friends will be interviewed. Not only that, but they will have endure a truth-telling enchantment. When that interrogation enchantment is cast, a wizard has absolutely no ability to tell a lie, at least to their knowledge. The only way to get your friends to tell the lie we want when they are interviewed is to deceive them into believing that you really are getting married and adopting the children."

Lucy's mind was about to explode. This was a lot to take in. "I'm sorry, but this is a lot. You want me to lie to all of my friends? You want me to put them through all of that? That just seems to cruel."

"I am so sorry, Lucy," Mavis said. "There is no other way."

"But why does it have to be me? Why does it have to be my friends? Is there no one else who can do this? Someone who doesn't have very close friends? My friends and I...we trust each other."

"I'm sorry, Lucy, but we need it to be you," said Mavis with unrelenting resolve. "You, and no one else. We need Lucy Heartfilia, the Celestial Wizard."

"But why do you need a Celestial Wizard?"

"That's where this gets tricky," said Maverick. "Steele and his siblings...their father...was a Celestial Spirit."

Lucy felt like her stomach had turned to bricks. "Wait, what?! I didn't even know that was possible! What Celestial Spirit? How could that spirit live here? Which spirit was it?!"

Maverick chuckled. "I honestly don't know. Steele didn't know, either. He didn't know his dad was a Celestial Spirit until recently. And his father disappeared right after Steele's youngest sibling was conceived, almost seven years ago. He seemed very concerned about it when he found out. I don't even know how he did. It inspired him to join The Royal Army's magical division to gain both strength and inside government information. He kept a lot of what he found from me, much to my dismay. He wanted to protect me. But he made it so that I couldn't protect him. And now I can't protect him or the rest of our our family. I just feel so helpless." He started crying again.

Lucy's heart went out to him. She couldn't imagine how hard it would be to endure what he was going through. And Steele's younger siblings...Lucy hoped they were okay. "I have a question, though," she said. "I know Steele's father might be a Celestial Spirit, but how does that affect your ability to find Steele and his siblings? Why do you need a Celestial Mage? They were clearly born of this world, and reside only in this world. I don't see how my abilities as a Celestial Mage would be advantageous in this situation."

"That's a fair question," responded Mavis. "This is the major problem with all of this. My latest scouting and research has led me to the conclusion that Zeref's next move has something to do with getting to The Celestial World. I fear that he is aware that a Celestial Spirit has offspring living here in Fiore, and he wants to get his hands on them to help him get into the spirit world. Even Celestial Mages cannot just go to and from the Celestial World at will. That may be an entirely different story for someone who is descended from a Celestial Spirit."

Well, holy shit. Holy hell. Lucy covered her mouth to stop herself from screaming. This was really, really bad. If Zeref was able to acquire the power of The Celestial World, he could bring his dream of destroying Earthland to fruition. Not only that, but he could destroy The Celestial World as well.

Now it was really clear just how dire of a situation this was. This wasn't just about saving a man and his family. This was about saving two worlds.


	2. Game Plan

Hey all, here is the second chapter! I am pretty new to this, so any reviews would be really helpful. I feel like there is a lot of plot, and I don't know how else to go about it, so any input would be really helpful. I hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to let me know if there are changes you think would make it a more enjoyable story!

CHAPTER TWO: GAME PLAN

Lucy took several moments to gather her wits. Her brain had plunged into overdrive, and not the kind that was helpful in terms of mental functioning. She needed to calm down. Freaking out right now wasn't going to help at all.

But, as a Celestial Mage, she knew just how dire this situation was. Zeref, gaining the ability to go to and from the Celestial World, and unlock its powers, was terrifying enough, even as a mere possibility, to shake one's bones until they broke. Like Fairy Heart, it could very well grant Zeref unlimited magic power. It could also amplify his abilities. Celestial Law made it so that neither spirits nor humans could willingly pass from world to world at will for so many reasons. Power and corruption were just two of them. Lucy was certain there were many more she didn't even have the slightest awareness of, and that thought terrified her.

"I am guessing," Mavis said quietly, "that my assessment of this situation as being very serious was on point, and that I have, in actuality, underestimated the danger we are all in."

Lucy nodded. "Yeah. It's bad. I don't know just how bad, but I know it's just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than Fairy Heart. It definitely has the ability to kill more innocent people. It could be the end of our world, AND the Celestial World. It could even cause death and destruction that reaches beyond our two worlds. It could unleash power and destruction unlike anything we could even imagine. Zeref absolutely cannot be allowed to gain access to the Celestial World. We have to stop him...no matter the cost." Lucy realized she was shaking.

Mavis rose and placed her hand gently on Lucy's back. "Listen to me, Lucy. We are Fairy Tail. We will stop this. Zeref cannot, and will not win. I promise you. We will do whatever it takes."

Lucy swallowed. "I don't think it's up to only us. It can't be. The Celestial Spirit King needs to be informed of this."

Mavis nodded. "Of course. We will need to work with the Celestial World as well. From what I have read, though, you cannot summon the Celestial Spirit King without destroying one of your gold keys, as you had to do with Aquarius during the battle at Tartaros."

"That's true. But I might be able to have my spirits pass the message along. I will summon Loke. He is a member of Fairy Tail, actually. Has anyone told you about him?"

Mavis lit up. "Yes, they have! Though I haven't had the pleasure of meeting him! Everyone calls him Loke, but he is Leo the Lion, the King of the Zodiac, right? It's so fitting for the guild that has a Celestial Spirit among its ranks to help out the family that's half human, half Celestial Spirit! It seems fate brought us all together!"

"Wow," said Maverick." That is really amazing! You didn't tell me that, Master Mavis! I feel more confident than ever that we will be able to achieve our victory!"

Lucy Smiled, and pulled out her keys. "Open, Gate of the Lion! Leo!"

….

….

….

….

….

Nothing happened.

"Uh, Lucy...?" Mavis asked.

Lucy felt her face flush. Was Loke seriously going to let her down right now? What the hell?! He was probably on some date. That girl-crazy creep!

She held the key out again, and said a second time, "Open, Gate of the Lion! Leo! I beckon thee! Pass through the gate!"

Nothing again.

"Lucy, maybe you should try someone else?" Mest suggested.

Lucy scoffed. 'That moron. He can leave his date to come talk to us. He isn't blowing me off this time!"

She lifted the key again. "Open, Gate of the Lion! Leo! Get your ass over here! The evil mage Zeref is trying to gain access to the Celestial World, and both worlds need your help right now! OPEN, GATE OF THE LION! COME HERE RIGHT NOW, LEO!"

Nothing again.

"I. Am. Not. Gonna. Ask. Again!" Lucy shouted. "OPEN, GATE OF THE LION! LEO, LOKE, PASS THROUGH THE GATE THIS INSTANT!"

Poof! Loke finally appeared. His hair was disheveled, he was desperately trying to pull up his boxers, and also had melted chocolate spilled all over his chest, between his legs, and around his mouth. Lucy buried her face into her hands. Could he have picked a worse time to be a sex fiend? Ugh. But she felt kind of bad. He did have a life outside of responding to her summons. She doubted he was any more of a fan of the timing of her summons than she was of his little...ahem...meal-sharing get-together.

"Um, Lucy? As you can see, bad timing here!" Loke exclaimed in embarrassment. "Couldn't you at least let me get dressed before forcing me through the gate?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Open, gate of the Maiden! Virgo!"

Poof!

Virgo appeared as well. She took one look at Lucy, Mavis, and then half naked, chocolate-covered Loke. "Oh, my. Do you want me to punish him, Princess?"

Lucy chuckled. "While I am tempted...no. Could you please bring him some clothes and a wet towel or something to wash up? We have something important to discuss."

"Certainly, Princess," Virgo replied with a bow, before poofing away.

Loke kneeled on the ground with his hands wrapped around his body in the mean time.

"Loke, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you, or interrupt your private moments. I promise I wouldn't have been so insistent if it wasn't important."

Loke laughed. "You know I forgive you, Lucy. I just wish you didn't have to see me like this."

Maverick interrupted. "It's good to know Celestial Spirits know how to have fun!" Then he winked.

"I concur," said Mavis with a giggle.

Another poof, and Virgo had returned with everything Loke needed. Lucy and the others turned away while Loke scrubbed the chocolate off and changed into fresh boxers, one of his suits, and dressy socks and shoes. When he was done, he said, "I am ready."

Mavis conjured two more chairs, one for Virgo, and one for Loke. They thanked her, and took their seats.

"For starters, everyone, this is Virgo, and Loke. Loke, and Virgo, this is Master Mavis Vermillion, the first and current master of Fairy Tail, Mest of Fairy Tail, and Maverick, our client."

Everyone shook hands and exchanged introductory pleasantries.

"Now that everyone has been introduced, we have a very big problem," Lucy continued. "We need you to pass along a message to the Celestial King. It's of the utmost importance."

Loke furrowed his eyebrows. "We will see what we can do. Tell us what's up."

"Okay, so...where do I even start? Basically, Zeref, the evil black mage, wants to find a way into the Celestial World. Considering that he wants to destroy and kill everything and everyone, it'd be really bad news if he succeeded."

"Princess," Virgo interjected, "please do not worry. It is not possible for him to enter our realm."

"I wish that were true," Lucy replied. "Unfortunately, he does have a chance. I don't know if you are aware, but a Celestial Spirit had children with a human here on Earth. Maverick, how many children did he have?"

"There are five. My life partner, Steele, and his siblings, Talon, Elian, Astrid, and Kalisa."

Both Virgo and Loke's jaws dropped, and they both gasped. "Are...are you sure?" Loke asked.

Maverick nodded. "Yes, I am sure."

"Also, we are not able to locate a single one of these children for the time-being," Mavis added.

Maverick continued, "Steele discovered letters between his parents at their home after his mother died five years ago. His father disappeared about seven years ago, and none of the kids ever knew he was a Celestial Spirit. But many letters and documents he found in his home revealed that he was. I actually have them here. You are welcome to read them, and to take them to your king." He leaned over to remove a large stack of documents from his knapsack, handing them to Loke. "I also have pictures to show you, if that might help—of both Steele's father, who went by the name of Braylon, his mother, Adara, who was a Celestial Mage, and of Steele and all the kids, back then, and our most recent pictures." He handed those to Virgo.

Loke paged through the documents, hyperventilating. Lucy had never seen him like this. It seemed like every new page he looked at alarmed him even more than the previous one. "There is no doubt that this is true. These letters and journal entries—they contain secrets about the Celestial World unknown to humans. It would be impossible for Braylon and Adara to possess this information unless this all was true. Maverick, who all has seen this? This is incredibly sensitive information."

"Just Steele, myself, and Master Mavis here."

"Good," said Loke. "I assume the Celestial King is going to want to speak to you and Mavis, and Steele if we can find him. Please, swear on your lives that you will not share this information with a single soul."

Maverick put his hand on his heart. "On my honor, on my life. I would never share information that could compromise the safety of your world and of my family."

Mavis added, "I swear as well. I understand how essential it is that no one ever gets their hands on this information."

"If it pleases Princess and other masters, could you please inform us of the circumstances in which the spirit-humans became impossible to locate?"

Maverick chuckled. "You are quite adorable. I like you, Virgo." Then, he shared the story he had just shared with Lucy.

Lucy felt bad that he had to talk about such painful things twice in one evening.

Loke looked more serious than Lucy had ever seen him. "Maverick, I can tell you love Steele and his siblings-your family- very deeply, and are very concerned for their well-being. As both a member of Fairy Tail, and a Celestial Spirit, I promise you that we will do everything within our power to bring them all home safe. Know that you and your family are not alone. You have a lot of formidable allies on your side."

"Zeref is begging to be punished," Virgo added.

Lucy looked Maverick square in the eyes, which were tearing up. "You have my word as well. I know that it might hurt my friends when I lie to them, but there really is no other way. They will understand when they hear the whole story. I know they will. They would want me to do this if they could be here right now having this discussion."

"Thank you so much, everyone. I am more grateful than words can say." He pulled out a tissue, dabbing his eyes. "I'm sorry to be such a wreck. I just miss them so much. And I am so worried about them."

Mavis gave Maverick's shoulders a comforting pat. Then, turned back towards Loke and Virgo. "All right. So is the Celestial King available to meet now?"

Virgo shook her head. "No, he is currently occupied."

Loke added, "Virgo and I will speak with him as soon as we can, and when we know when and where we can all meet again, one or both of us will inform Lucy, who can then inform you. Also, if you don't mind, we will take these documents and pictures with us to show to The King. I promise we will return them, Maverick."

"Perfect," said Mavis. "We have many other details to work out, but I think it would be best to hold off on any additional planning until we are with the Spirit King and any other Celestial Spirits who need to be part of these plans."

"We will be sure to inform all other members of the Zodiac as well," said Loke.

"Thank you for meeting with us today, Loke and Virgo. It was a delight to meet you," said Mavis.

"Thank you, both of you," Maverick added.

"Thank you, my friends," Lucy said.

Loke and Virgo both waved, smiled, and poofed away.

Mavis stood up. "All right! Meeting adjourned!"

"Wait," Mest interjected. "I have something I want to address before we all go our separate ways for now."

Mavis sat back down. "All right. What is it?"

Mest looked very uncomfortable. "I know we haven't mentioned any of this to Lucy yet, but I want to address it now for ethical reasons."

Mavis looked mildly put off. "I see. Please, continue. I don't want anyone on this team to have ethical concerns as we go forward."

Mest nodded, then looked straight at Lucy. "I am on this team, because, in order to convince those closest to you that you are actually engaged to be married to Maverick, I am going to have to alter their memories. They are going to have to believe that they have suspected you were seeing Maverick in secret for some time. This has to happen in order for them to be convinced that you are actually serious about being engaged to him. There is no way they are going to support your being engaged to someone you just met."

"I see," Lucy replied. She felt a heavy, uncomfortable knot of dread ball up in her stomach. It felt so wrong to deceive her friends like that.

"We were going to have you pick ten of the people closest to you to perform these memory alterations on. Everyone else in Fairy Tail will not have any memory of your previous involvement with Maverick. We have to limit it to ten, because the way in which we alter the memories is going to be complicated, since these people clearly know and care about you. And they see you in different circumstances, and your relationships with them vary from person to person. We will have to craft specific memory alterations for each individual person. If we attempted to do that with any more than ten people, we could begin to make major errors. Ten is even pushing it. We are goingto have to be very, very careful. But Mavis assured me that that ten was the minimum we would need in order to make this whole story convincing to the court, so we have no choice but to make it work."

Lucy nodded. "I understand."

"The reason I bring this up now, instead of tomorrow, is because I have ethical concerns with this arrangement. And I can tell that you do, too, Lucy. It's one thing to alter the memories of those who are not close to us. But to alter the memories of comrades who would give their lives to save ours—that starts to seem out of line."

"Mest," Mavis snapped, "what are you saying? We really don't have a choice in the matter. There is too much at stake!"

Lucy wanted to cry.

"I am not suggesting that we abort the mission. I am suggesting that we take one more step to get the express consent of each individual who is going to have their memory altered before we subject them to the memory alterations. Also, recently, I have developed some new magical technologies that could help make this less painful for Lucy's friends."

Mavis nodded, beckoning Mest to continue.

"What I suggest we do is hold a meeting with the ten friends of her choice. We tell them everything about the mission, and what we intend to do with their memories. They can decide to consent, or decline. If they decline, I will remove any and all memories of the meeting, and none of their memories will be altered further. If they consent, I will have them record a statement to their future selves on a video lacrima. And then I will remove their memories of the meeting, but store them in some memory lacrimas I have developed. Then, I will add the memory alterations as well. Once the four children are found and brought home, then we can give the memories of the meeting back to Lucy's friends. The video lacrima is merely used as backup in case something happens to the memory storage, since I don't have a lot of experience using them yet."

Lucy wanted to hug him. He was brilliant. He had made many mistakes in the past, but she was so thankful for him right now. This would make it all so much less invasive for the people she cared about the most.

"Mest," she said, " you can really do that? I think that is an awesome idea. I would feel like so much less of a sociopath if we did something like that."

"I am in agreement with Lucy," said Mavis. "Mest, you have outdone yourself. What a wonderful idea."

"I like it too," said Maverick. "I would feel horrible if this ruined Lucy's relationship with her closest friends. When should we have this meeting?"

Mavis crinkled her brows, thinking. "Lucy, you and your friends are having a party tonight, right?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes, at Natsu and Happy's house."

"All right. I assume you will want to sleep in, and you deserve it since you have so much coming up after this. But everyone should be able to drag themselves out of bed before noon. Talk to your friends and we can decide where to have our meeting We might need to have it here again. We can't risk anyone overhearing. I can bring lunch, which will hopefully attract certain boys out of their beds."

Lucy chuckled. "That sounds good. So I am bringing the ten people I choose?"

"Yes," Mavis said. "Do you know who you want to bring? Who do you think will be the best candidates to have their memories altered?"

Lucy thought a moment. "Luckily, it isn't a hard decision for me at all. I choose Natsu, Happy, Erza, Gray, Juvia, Wendy, Carla, Cana, Levy, and Mirajane."

"Perfect," replied Mavis. "I think that should do wonderfully. Now, you have a party you need to get back to, don't you?"

"Yes," said Lucy. "They are probably wondering where the hell I went."


End file.
